Tuesday, July 28, 2009

AHF INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIP 2009

The threat of disciplinary action hangs over Hockey India consequent to the withdrawal of the Indian team from the Asia Cup indoor hockey championship starting at Ipoh, Malaysia, on August 4.

India was to field the men’s and women’s teams for the championship but is reported to have pulled out putting the organising unit in an embarrassing situation.

The reasons attributed to the withdrawal are lack of preparation and financial constraints. But the AHF views the decision to withdraw as breach of discipline. It is premature to guess the stand that AHF will take on the issue. Some are hopeful that India can still fulfil its commitment to participate. India faces the possibility of a fine, if not suspension

It may have slipped the mind of the officials of the Malaysian Hockey Federation, but Ipoh is set to play host to the AHF Indoor Championships from August 3 to August 9. But then again if you keep on reading you will understand why MHF have kept this tournament a low key affair, yet again putting their President in bad light.

While the AHF Mens Indoor Championship will be in its second edition, this year the championships will also see the participation of the Womens teams.

A total of 5 countries will play in the men's category with Malaysia fielding two teams. The other countries are Iran, Uzbekistan, Thailand and India. Malaysia will be represented yet again by Sapura as Malaysia "A".

Now here is the interesting part, there is a Malaysia "B" team participating and it is under the ambit of MHF with Bukit Jalil Sports School coach S.Prakash. But the coach was only appointed on Sunday, and has barely a week to put up a decent side for the championships while Sapura had been hard at work for the last two weeks.

So what were the officials of MHF doing all these while, just looking at going on trips I suppose as Ipoh might not be a worthy trip to make, perhaps Australia and New Zealand are where they have set their sights on.

Another interesting thing is why has the MHF decided not to field players who were dropped from the Aussie/Kiwi tour as a team in the tournament and have them train from last week itself, with one of the assistant coaches taking charge?

In the women's category, the teams that have confirmed participation are Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Thailand with Malaysia fielding two teams as well and said to be coached by R. Vivekananda,